Fruit Bowl Cake - No Waste Food Challenge June 2014

I am delighted to be hosting the No Waste Food Challenge this month on behalf of Elizabeth's Kitchen.  I cannot stand food waste and we ensure we use the food we buy wisely and waste as little as possible.  The theme is open, sweet or savoury recipes, share any recipe which uses up any ingredients which otherwise might have gone to waste.

I decided to bake a cake using fruit that was slightly past it's best in our fruit bowl.  There were a couple of apples, a couple of pears which were still rock hard even after a week in the fruit bowl, and a 150g pack of reduced for quick sale blueberries which I purchased for 20p.

I used my usual sponge recipe but substituted oil for butter as it makes it much easier to mix, and we'd run out of butter.  The recipe is really versatile, you could use ground ginger instead of cinnamon,  or leave out the spice and use vanilla extract.  I use whatever fruit I have that needs using up, I haven't tried sliced banana yet but most firm fruit works such as apples, pears peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums providing they aren't too mushy.

Fruit Bowl Cake

If you are using apples or pears which are likely to go brown once peeled and sliced, toss them in the juice of a lemon then prepare the cake batter. 

500g of prepared fruit (plums, apples, pears and berries all work well)

Juice of 1 lemon (optional)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

200g self raising flour

200g caster sugar

3 free range eggs

100ml oil

Heat oven to 180C/160C Fan.  Grease and line a 23cm round cake tin.

Core and dice the fruit then set aside.  Peel apples and pears if you want, I didn't bother.  Toss the prepared fruit in the juice of a lemon if it is likely to turn brown.  Combine the cinnamon, flour and sugar in a large bowl.  Make a well in the centre and add the eggs and oil.  Beat until a smooth mixture forms.  

Fold through the fruit, and any remaining lemon juice, then pour the batter into your prepared tin and level the top.  Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Now it's your turn. I can't wait to see all the leftover loving, food saving, delicious recipes you come up with!

Challenge Conditions:

Please make sure your post includes a link back to this blog post and Elizabeth's Kitchen then link up your URL using the linky at the bottom of this post.

Feel free to republish old posts, just make sure you add a link to the current challenge and add the challenge badge (the blue badge at the top of this post).

Make sure you link up before the 28th of the month.

Posts will be added to the No Waste Food Challenge Pinterest Board to help spread the food waste prevention love.

Tweet @utterlyscrummy and @TangoRaindrop with the hashtag #NoWasteFoodChallenge and we will retweet all that we see.